Doctor Who : The Signaller
by Doctor Project
Summary: When a girl at an orphanage finds a strange stereo, the Doctor and his new companions find themselves trying to save the world from a new race of aliens that want to take control of the universe...
1. Over The Fence

- Chapter One -

**Over The Fence**

Twelve year-old Eva Marrow hated playing indoors. Games consoles and televisions were boring, and she'd much prefer to be playing basketball and skateboarding any day of the week. Currently, she and her friend Kenny Smith were playing football. Well, improvised football at any rate. There was only one player per side, and lacking a real football they were using a tennis ball. Instead of a goal, they had designated bricks in the walls as the net, although they were having difficulty remembering which bricks were which.

They had been playing for over an hour, and Kenny was winning. Eva ran towards him, ready to tackle him and shoot the ball all the way to the other end of the make-shift pitch.

'Don't think you'll get this one in,' she jibed at him. 'This is it now. I'm going to win this time...'

'Yeah right, Marrow,' Kenny sneered back, dodging her. 'Don't get your hopes up. And by the way, whoever wins this gets an extra milkshake on Monday. With topping.'

That was a huge incentive. Milkshake was pretty much the only good thing about Mondays.

Eva wheeled around as Kenny began aiming at the goal and dived for it in his hesitance.

'Hah!' she shouted in triumph as her foot connected with it. The ball flew up towards the other end of the pitch, higher and higher until...

'Nice one,' Kenny said sarcastically.

The ball had gone over a tall wire fence, and bounced into a large rubbish skip on the other side.

Eva picked herself up from the floor, rubbing her arm which had scraped across the floor. 'Yeah...' she mumbled, 'still... at least you didn't score.' She grinned at him. He didn't return the expression.

'That was my last one since Thomas "The Idiot" Jennings threw the other one in the pond that time we went to the park.'

'All right,' Eva said, rolling her eyes. 'I'll go and get it.'

Behind the fence was a large factory that manufactured car parts. There was security at the main entrance that stopped anyone but employees from getting in, but Eva didn't much fancy having to ask some burly guards for her ball back.

Fortunately, the local kids had figured out a way to get past, because the factory had all kinds of interesting places that were ideal for dens and hideouts. The ball had fallen into the bigger of the two huge, rusting yellow skips along the wall that provided an excellent place to swap trading cards, as long as you didn't mind the smell.

'I love a good dumpster dive in the morning,' Eva muttered unenthusiastically, now wondering whether an extra milkshake was worth all this.

She crept towards a hole in the fence, the regular entrance for everyone under five feet tall, and squeezed through. Looking around quickly for any sign of adults, she ran towards the corner of the factory, and peered round. There were a couple of people milling about during their lunch break, but they had their backs turned, and so Eva rushed past them before they noticed. She ducked in between the dumpsters and was going to breathe a sigh of relief until she thought better of it. She hesitantly looked inside.

The garbage was piled high, and flies buzzed over it. Although it was mostly metal and junk, there were still a number of bulging black bags, dripping unpleasantly. Hoping the ball hadn't fallen to the bottom, Eva grimaced and began to dig through the rubbish, looking out for something spherical and yellow. She turned over the bin bags and moved aside old scrap metal. Finally, her hand closed around the tennis ball, and she retrieved it. It was caked in grime, but she was pretty sure it was the same as the ball she'd kicked over the fence.

'Gotcha!' She punched the air and pocketed it. She made to jump out, but her foot slid on something and she heard something bleep, like a computer turning on. Eva looked around for the source.

She crouched down again, and moved aside a sheet of wood that had a huge split down the middle. Beneath it, lay a strange looking device, a bit like a stereo. Eva picked it up and examined it. It was black, approximately thirty centimetres long, and had two circles of thin metal mesh on either side that resembled speakers. In the middle of the speakers, were a number of buttons and dials that Eva didn't recognise. Maybe not a stereo, then. She had kicked a switch, and now a little LED next to it was flashing red and a steady bleep was emanating from it, like the sonar in submarines.

Eva jumped down from the dumpster, still holding the device. Evidently no one wanted it, because it had been thrown away and therefore it wasn't stealing. In fact, she mused, she was saving the world by making sure the thing didn't go into landfill, so she definitely had the moral high ground. Eva ran back to the hole in the fence and hurried back towards the orphanage, the device under her arm.

She ran upstairs to stash the stereo - or whatever it was - in her room before anyone asked her what it was. She knelt on the floor to shove it under her bed, hoping that she might be able to listen to her favourite CD later, but hesitated. Surely stereos didn't make noises. At least, not until you pressed play. But the thing was still bleeping. When she examined the buttons, she noticed they were labelled with strange symbols she didn't recognise. No play, pause, or rewind, just indecipherable squiggles and lines. She pressed a button anyway, hoping a secret compartment would open up and reveal what the device was for. Instead, the bleeping became a single, held tone, and got higher in pitch.

Eva clamped her hands over her ears as it became so high it was an excruciating whistle. Higher and higher, until it was filling her head. It was blocking out everything but the sound, becoming louder and louder. The whole orphanage could hear it now. Someone was knocking on the door, shouting for her, but the noise was so painful in her head that she couldn't move.

'Eva? Are you in there? What's that horrible noise?'

'I-It's this... this thing!' Eva shouted above the sound, like microphone feedback in her head.

'Turn it off!'

'I c-can't!'

Her head was spinning, and she could barely see. Eva closed her eyes, but it didn't make a difference. There was no escape.

The door opened, and Kenny rushed inside. Other children peered around the door, but they all soon collapsed to their knees as the noise filled their heads too. Everyone looked as if they were screaming in pain. Blackness began curling into the corners of Eva's eyes. She felt like the world was crushing in around her, like her head was about to explode. She had to turn the device off.

Mustering all her strength, she pushed through the thick air, and flicked the switch. Silence finally fell. Completely exhausted, Eva and all the other children sank to the floor, out cold.

* * *

'What's that?'

'A polarity regulator.'

'And that?'

'A cyberkinetic transmorphograph.'

'What about _that_ one?'

'A teletrophic physicality receptor.'

'Uh huh. And that one?'

'You know you two really are very inquisitive for your age. Most of the time I'd say it's brilliant, I mean, I like inquisitive. Inquisitive is my middle name - The "Inquisitive" Doctor, that's what they call me - but you're just a little too inquisitive.'

'We're just _asking_,' Jenny replied innocently, grinning at Matt who was sitting on the TARDIS control desk, as the Doctor darted from one side of the console to the other. 'Besides,' Matt said, 'you were blatantly making those words up. I mean, what's a cyber-whatsit transformer when it's at home? Sounds like some kind of cartoon.'

'It probably is. He's totally into that kind of stuff.'

'I was _not_ making it up,' the Doctor retorted, looking hurt. He moved towards Matt. 'You, get down from there. You're in the way of the somatic response reticulat-- Look, just... just get up. And you,' he pointed at Jenny, who was laughing at him, 'stop trying to be clever.'

Matt jumped down and grinned at the Doctor.

'It is really interesting, though. I mean, time travel! You see it on the TV and stuff, but it's different when it's actually happening.'

'Time _and space_,' the Doctor reminded him. People always seemed to forget it travelled anywhere in space too, which, in the Doctor's opinion, was just as impressive as something travelling in time. After all, if you'd travelled in time once, it was easy to do it again, and you usually didn't end up anywhere too nasty except Elizabethan England or the 1980s. Travelling a million, billion miles across the stars, on the other hand, took skill and knowledge. To travel in _space_ you had to know where you were going.

'Anyway, she's being a bit placid at the moment,' he said, placing a hand on the transparent blue column, as if feeling the TARDIS' pulse. 'Adjusting to having you lot around, I'd bet.'

'I'm not complaining about that,' Ivy said. She was sitting on one of the benches, watching the three of them with amusement. 'I'll take smooth, peaceful TARDIS over jolting, exploding TARDIS any day of the week.'

'Hang on, what's that?'

The Doctor wheeled round to face Jenny, 'stop -'

'No really, what is it? This thing just started flashing. I think it's a warning light of some kind. A distress signal...'

The Doctor raised a perplexed eyebrow and moved over to the monitor hanging above the desk.

'Hmm... It's not a distress signal, and it's nothing in this part of space. It's coming from way off. Hold on...' He manipulated the controls and tapped some keys. The TARDIS shifted and the column began to move faster. The Doctor rushed round the console, twisting dials, pressing buttons and pulling levers, sometimes with both hands and a foot, as the TARDIS transported them through the vortex.

Ivy, Matt and Jenny were flung from their seats. Something exploded, and smoke began to fill the room.

Finally, with an almighty shudder, the TARDIS landed.

The Doctor disentangled himself from the controls.

'Right!' he said. He jumped up and swung a screen towards him. 'Where are we?'

Matt's voice drifted out from somewhere, 'Does it matter? I think I've broken something...'

'Ooh we're on Earth. 2009. London. Broad Street. '

'What? The orphanage?' Ivy asked, joining the Doctor.

'Apparently.'

'What's a place like that doing with an alien signal? We only got broadband six months ago!'

'I dunno, but d'you know what?'

'What?'

The Doctor grinned excitedly. 'Let's be inquisitive!'


	2. Searching For Signals

- Chapter Two -

**Searching For Signals**

The orphanage was not an imposing building. It was barely noticeable if you hadn't been looking for it. There was no front garden, just steps leading up to a green front door. The TARDIS had landed in opposite the house, right beside a bus stop.

Ivy was the first outside. She walked up to the door and pulled the key from her pocket.

'How come I don't have one of those?' Matt asked, bounding up the steps behind her. 'Because you're the eldest? That's just ageist, that is.' He grabbed the key as Ivy held it to the lock.

'Hey, Matt! Give it back!'

'Anyway, what do _you_ need a key for?' Jenny inquired. 'Can't you just use the cat flap?'

'Now, children, don't fight,' the Doctor said. He immediately regretted it when he saw their icy glares. 'I mean, er... play nicely? Stop... bickering? Oh never mind.' He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and shone it at the lock. The screwdriver hummed for a second, and the lock clicked open.

Ivy hadn't known what she was expecting to see. Aliens, perhaps. Or robots. Or aliens that had all the children replaced with robots.

She had definitely expected _something_ to be different, but now she realised that no matter what happened, the old orphanage never changed. It still had the same faded wallpaper, the same scribbly pictures pinned to the wall. The same clock ticked on the same shelf, and the smell coming from the downstairs toilet was, unfortunately, the same. Ivy wondered what day it was and whether they had been away for very long. For all she knew, it might have been the same day that they had gone to the museum. It was very quiet in the house, so perhaps it was.

'Nice,' said the Doctor. 'I like it. Lived in. I like lived in.' He leant in close to examine a six year-old's abstract finger painting.

'I forgot you've never been here, Doctor,' Matt said. 'That's weird; us travelling around in your TARDIS and you not knowing where we're from.'

'You're from London, Earth. I'm sure that's close enough in the grand scheme of things,' said Jenny. 'Anyway,' she turned to the Doctor, 'don't you have something we can use to locate that signal thing, whatever it is?'

The Doctor brandished the sonic screwdriver. He adjusted the setting and turned it on. 'Here we go. It's -- Hang on. It's gone. Someone must have turned it off while we were back in the TARDIS.'

'So now what do we do?' Ivy said. 'It could be anywhere.'

'We split up,' said the Doctor; and they split up.

* * *

Eva slowly stirred, although she could barely remember what had happened. Her head ached, and she could still hear a whistling in her ears, an echo of the deafening sound that had long since dissipated. Was it real, or had it all been a dream? She realised that all the other children were gone.

So that device didn't exist. If it had, wouldn't the other children have been like her, just coming round and rubbing their heads in pain and confusion?

Eva raised her head, and saw the little black box where she had left it. Oh dear. So much for that, then; it was real after all. She sat up and rubbed her temples, wondering what to do next. If the device was real, then the sound had been real. The children must have all fainted like her. But where were they?

Deciding it would be a good idea to get something for her head, Eva crept downstairs.

* * *

Matt was a very logical thinker. He had determined that the best place to look for an alien device was somewhere that it would blend in. Obviously this alien device was new-fangled, probably with a big flat-screen screen, and really expensive, so the games room would naturally be the first place to look. It might even be hidden inside a TV or something. He decided that the best thing to do, the fool-proof way to save the world, was to turn on the TV and make sure there was nothing wrong with it.

He grabbed the remote control and flicked on the SciFi channel, because obviously if alien technology turned up on TV, it would be on there. X-Files blared to life, Mulder and Scully looking for clues about an alien mystery. 'I know exactly how you feel,' Matt told them, folding his hands behind his head and leaning back on the sofa. 'Saving the world - it's not as easy as everyone thinks.'

* * *

Ivy checked outside. It was a dull, grey afternoon and there was nobody about. She wondered about that. The calendar on the kitchen wall had confirmed that this was not the day they had been to the museum. In fact, there wasn't a trip scheduled at all. The back garden showed no signs of life except for half a bottle of Coca-Cola balanced precariously on the garden wall. A couple of cars drove by every now and again, and some kids from across the road were playing football in their front garden. But the orphanage was empty.

Where on Earth was everybody? Or, she corrected herself, where in the _Universe_?

* * *

Jenny had chosen the kitchen to investigate. She opened all the drawers and the cupboards, rifled through the paperwork, mixed up the cutlery and even looked behind the notice-board for a secret safe. There was no sign of anything particularly alien, excepting herself, obviously. She stood in the middle of the room, hands on her hips, and studied every surface, every object and every corner for a clue.

'Come on,' she said to herself, 'what would Dad do?'

Immediately, a picture of a sonic screwdriver popped into her head. She mentally waved it away. Right. No help there, then.

She looked up and noticed that there was some kind of silver box up on top of the kitchen cabinets. The signalling device?

Jenny pulled herself up onto the bench top and reached up for the device. As she did so, her arm knocked a glass and it smashed on the floor, sending glass fragments, glittering like stars, across the tiles.

'Sorry!' she called to the rest of the house. She reached up again and grabbed the box, pulling it down. 'Come on then, Mr Alien Device,' she muttered. It was slightly heavy, about the size of a DVD player and wrapped in silver paper. Taped to the corner of it was a gift tag that said, "Dear Mary Beth, Happy Birthday! From Miss Hannigan".

'Oh,' Jenny said.

* * *

The Doctor was in the study. Screwdriver in hand, he checked radiation levels and for any time fluctuations. He searched the orphanage's database for signs of alien activity, checking if there had been any strange deliveries, any new children coming in with odd characteristics - extra eyes, extra toes, a strange tendency to unzip their foreheads and climb out of their skin before ripping the other people to shreds... But nothing. Obviously whoever had sent the signal was good at hiding.

Or perhaps they weren't there at all.

* * *

The first thing Eva noticed as she descended the stairs is that there was nobody around. The house was silent.

'Ok,' she mumbled to herself, feeling the anxiety grow in her stomach. 'So they've gone somewhere without me... Nothing unusual about that...'

Eva jumped, terrified. There was a sound in the kitchen, the shattering of breaking glass.

'Sorry!' called a girl whose voice Eva didn't recognise. Was she a robber? Or a kidnapper? Eva contemplated running back upstairs and grabbing her baseball bat. She backed down the corridor and felt for the handle of the study door. Her hand closed around it, just as the door was wrenched open, and she screamed.

'I'm picking up some transmission spikes, which definitely means that someone with something a little more futuristic than a mobile phone has been communicating some how. And judging by the distance -- oh!' The Doctor nearly tripped over the frightened Eva as she fell backwards. 'Sorry! I didn't see you there.'

'W - who are you?' Eva asked, trying to sound brave but knowing she sounded afraid and on the verge of tears. 'Please don't take me like you took the others.'

The Doctor looked at her for a moment, studying her as if he was surprised she even existed. He pulled out a strange-looking metal wand and shone it at her. It produced a strange sound and a bright blue light, and he waved it over her like he was scanning her for something.

'Definitely human,' he said, apparently to himself. 'But you're showing signs of mild concussion. Did something knock you out? Something... loud, noisy? I'm guessing it wasn't music.'

_How does he know that?_ Eva wondered, watching the blue light warily. _And what does he mean "definitely human"?_

'It was a fight. I got knocked out,' she lied.

The man looked at her, and Eva felt as if he could see her every thought and memory, as if he was looking for something in her head.

'That machine. Where is it?' he said. 'That's the reason I'm here. I need to see it, because if it is what I think it is then it could mean that something very, very bad is going to happen. And I've got to stop it.'

* * *

The five of them gathered upstairs in Eva's room. The Doctor was using his sonic screwdriver to get a response from the device, and kept muttering things under his breath like, 'so it's not a binary signal response mechanism... Maybe setting 5524B...'

'You've been travelling with him all this time?' Eva asked Ivy, as Jenny handed them all mugs of tea. 'Seeing aliens and all that?'

'Pretty much,' Ivy said. 'It's weird coming back to find alien technology in our own back yard, though.'

'But you must've seen real aliens, with tentacles and three eyes and stuff.'

'Angry and hungry ones, with big teeth and massive claws, yes. We haven't met too many of the friendly ET variety, though.'

Eva burst out laughing. It was so ridiculous. Aliens? Monsters? Sonic screwdrivers? 'You're so accepting of it all. Like, oh I'll just pop to Mars and back in time for tea. Do you know how crazy it sounds?'

Ivy grinned sheepishly. 'You just sort of get used to it after a while.'

'Whatever. It sounds like a stupid game to me. Aliens don't exist. It's all just conspiracy theories and hoaxes.'

'It's not, though. There are real aliens out there, and so many of them, on millions of different planets.' Ivy was starting to remember why she and Eva had not been particularly good friends.

'Come on, Ivy, this bloke's blatantly hypnotised you somehow with that gadget, and now he's come here to kidnap all of us. Where are all the kids?'

'That's what we've come to find out,' Ivy said. 'Look, we can't waste time. Either you believe us or you don't, but we've got to find out what's going on.'

'What's going on is that you need to go to the police to get this bloke locked up.'

'How come you fainted, then? How d'you explain that?'

'It's just a weird stereo that malfunctioned. No wonder it was in the bin. The kids have all gone on a trip without me, and I'm sure they'll be back soon. Nothing weird. No aliens, no monsters, no spaceships, no signals and definitely, definitely, _definitely,_ no sonic-bloody-screwdrivers!'


	3. Satellite Interference

- Chapter Three -

**Satellite Interference**

After a couple of minutes, the Doctor managed to open up a panel in the contraption and was now digging inside, looking for the mechanism that would determine where the machine was from.

'That's strange. There's some sort of inhibitor... But it's not in this thing,' he tapped the device. 'It's somewhere else.'

'We have to go and look for something else?' Matt asked, wondering whether this new device might have concealed itself inside a games console.

'No, because if I'm right the inhibitor's still active.' The Doctor held up his screwdriver. It was issuing a ticking noise, like a metal detector. The Doctor waved it around. The ticking sped up quickly as the Doctor walked across the room to where Eva was sitting.

'Where you found that device; I don't suppose you picked up anything else? Any other gizmos or something that might've looked like an alien artefact?'

'No,' Eva said. 'I just found that and brought it home.'

The Doctor stood up straight, looking at her again with that piercing, searching expression. 'Are you sure?'

'Yes I'm sure!' Eva said, feeling a little exasperated. 'I just went round to the factory to get my ball back and looked in the dumpster and found that thing. Maybe this _inhibitor_ thing got stuck to my shoes or something, or _maybe_ it never even existed. I don't know why you're here, or who you are, or what you've done to the children and those two,' she pointed at Matt and Ivy, 'but I'm not going to play along with this stupid, ridiculous scheme --'

'Hang on a minute,' the Doctor said, ignoring her last sentence, 'you said you went to get your ball back?'

Eva glared at him. 'Yeah, but it's just a tennis ball. Look.'

She pulled the ball out of her pocket.

The Doctor took it, sat down and stared at it. He held the screwdriver over it. The blue light illuminated it, turning it a strange green colour.

'That's not a tennis ball,' he murmured. The screwdriver's ticking had turned into a high-pitched buzz as he waved it over the sphere. 'That's a signal inhibitor. From the Susurrus galaxy, if I'm any judge. It repels sound waves of a certain frequency; that's why you've not disappeared like the other children - you had the inhibitor, so you were protected.' He turned the object over in his hand. 'But what's it doing here? Who'd need to send a signal all the way across the stars from Earth? And more importantly, did they get the message?'

'Doctor, what about the children?' Ivy asked.

The Doctor jumped up, grabbed the stereo and was at the bedroom door before they could blink. 'Let's get back to the TARDIS. We've got to find out what that signal was about, who it's calling and what happened to the children. If we could pick up the signal in the vortex then I'm betting whoever that signal was intended for received it. Allons-y!'

* * *

Matt, Jenny and the Doctor had gone inside the TARDIS, but Eva had refused. Ivy sat with her outside on the bus stop. She wondered why the girl was so resolute in believing that aliens weren't real when there was almost irrefutable evidence of their existence. After all, she had been knocked out by alien technology and stood right next to them was a time machine that was bigger on the inside. If only she could get Eva to take a look inside the TARDIS...

'Would you like a cup of tea?' Ivy asked, making a feeble attempt to break the ice. 'Er, the Doctor's got a kettle inside the --'

'Oh come off it, Ivy,' Eva snapped at her. 'Wake up! Yes, at first I thought it was all a bit weird, but all it is is a stereo with some major wiring issues. He's making all that stuff up, but you can't see it because he's happy and energetic and has you lot somehow believing aliens really exist. If there was any such thing as spaceships I think the government would know about it.'

'Well, there's Torchwood. They go after aliens too. They're based in Cardiff, which is built on a rift in time and space.' Ivy said, absent-mindedly reading the graffiti on the bus stop windows and wondering whether P.L. still luv'd K.B 4eva.

'Yeah, and I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' Eva said, sarcastically. 'And he's even got that poor girl believing she's his daughter. There's no way someone that age would have a --'

'He's over nine-hundred years old!' Ivy insisted. She felt like an idiot but believed it with all her heart because she knew it was all true. 'Look, he's an alien; a Time Lord from Gallifrey, the last of his kind. He's got two hearts and can travel in time and space in the TARDIS. He has psychic paper and a sonic screwdriver and he's saved the world so many times. Not just Earth, but all kinds of planets out there! He's been to the end of the Universe, he's seen Shakespeare's lost play and he had a run in with ghosts when he met Charles Dickens at Christmas!'

Eva looked Ivy right in the eye, concerned and disbelieving. 'You really, really believe it don't you?'

'I've _been there_!' Ivy exclaimed. She sounded hysterical now, probably not the best way to persuade people you hadn't been hypnotised. 'Eva, believe me; Matt and I have been to space.'

'He must be one of those fake doctors, the type that says they're a doctor but downloaded their certificate off the Internet.'

Ivy rolled her eyes. She was frustrated and exasperated. How could she make Eva understand?

'Just go inside the TARDIS and you'll see. It's bigger on the inside.'

'Yeah, and have him brainwash me too? I don't think so.'

Ivy gave up. The only way to make Eva understand was to show her an alien up close. If she went to space then there would be no way she could deny that everything was true.

* * *

'I bet you that it was saying how boring Earth was,' Matt said. 'Like, "Brothers! Do not come here! This planet is slow and unsophisticated."'

'No way! They'll be all, "Earth is ripe for the picking! Let us rise and destroy this puny planet!" You know what aliens are like. Vain, massive egos, superiority complexes... Typical men.' Jenny wandered around the console desk, watching all the lights flickering on and off.

'Not all of them,' the Doctor said. He had his brainy specs on and was leaning in close to examine the inhibitor. 'I'm much too smart.'

Jenny and Matt exchanged a look and grinned.

'It didn't have a particular message or the TARDIS would have deciphered it. It was just a call, like a ring tone. Crazy Frog for aliens.' He frowned as he peered at the inhibitor. 'This is malfunctioning. Must've been damaged when it fell to Earth. I wondered why Eva had concussion. If she had this then it should have protected her completely, but she was still affected. Luckily, though, the inhibitor still managed to prevent the worst of it.'

'Does that mean the other children are dead?'

'No, I don't think so. They might not be able to hear for a few days, but I don't think it killed them.'

'So where are they?'

Without answering, the Doctor pocketed the inhibitor and left the TARDIS. He walked over to Ivy and Eva. 'Where did you find this stuff?'

Eva heaved a sigh. 'Well, if you really must know it was all in the dumpster next to the factory.'

The Doctor peered through the metal bars of the fence. The skips were there, rusty and yellow.

'Brilliant,' he said. 'Hidden somewhere nobody would ever look, except a girl who wants her ball back.' He turned to Jenny, Ivy and Matt. 'Right, then! I'm betting the children have been taken into the factory. Our job is to get them all out safely, find out what's going on and possibly save the world from an imminent hostile alien threat without being captured or killed.'

'Well, that should be a piece of cake,' Matt said, sarcastically.

* * *

They did not get angry. They did not argue. They did not speak. They whispered and were thoughtful, cunning and unfeeling. They were thin, tall beings with smooth, jet black skin. They moved silently, gracefully, like shadows. Their dark ship moved through space, a thin arrow in the blackness amongst the stars.

*I we... ... _ffzzzh_... ack to... planet... ... dest... _click._*

'Signal lost.'

'This planet has been a thorn in all of our sides for far too long.'

'The humans are noisy, loud and arrogant.'

'Three new satellites have been sent into orbit in the last month. Two of them for communications and another for intelligence purposes. We believe that they are sending two more up in the next few weeks. Unfortunately the satellite interference is impeding our advance. We cannot locate the planet without a clear signal.'

'Can we locate individual satellites?'

'Four satellites located and locked.'

A Signaller shifted in his seat, his long, thin fingers steepled in front of pursed lips. 'Perhaps all is not lost.'


	4. The Factory

- Chapter Four -

**The Factory**

They assembled outside the factory gates and tried to look as inconspicuous as they could. Unfortunately however, the Doctor was waving the sonic screwdriver around and generally being more conspicuous than a polka-dot elephant.

'One security guard and a couple of barriers. Easy. Just wave the psychic paper in front of their faces and wait for them to let us in.'

He walked confidently towards the guard booth and rapped on the glass. A bored-looking, overweight security guard put down his bacon sandwich. 'Please state your identity and hold up your employee badge,' he said in a monotone.

'Oh, we're not employees,' the Doctor said, smiling happily and leaning towards the metal speaking grille. 'We're, ah, inspectors.' He held up the psychic paper, 'Inspector Smith, to be precise, Health and Safety. This lot are on work experience with me.'

Ivy, Matt and Jenny nodded eagerly.

The dull guard glanced at the paper and puffed out a long sigh. 'Very well, Inspector. Please wait at Reception for your name badges to be delivered to you.'

The Doctor grinned. They were in.

'Matt and Jenny, you two go round the back. Have a good look around and see if you can find any thing that looks alien.' Jenny nodded and she and Matt turned around and ran back towards the fence. 'Oh, and stay out of trouble!' the Doctor shouted after them. He doubted they had heard him. Or, if they had, he doubted they'd listen. After all, Matt was akin to a match in a firework factory, and Jenny was - well, Jenny the Doctor's daughter. Telling her to stay out of trouble was like telling a child that they could not, under any circumstances, have another chocolate bar from the fridge until Mum got home.

'Ivy. You and me are going to look for the children. Keep a look out for anyone that looks like they might be after us.' He looked around. 'Where did Eva go?'

'She stayed behind,' Ivy said, trying not to show that she and Eva were less than friends. The Doctor could probably tell, anyway. He was giving her a sidelong glance. 'Where to, then?' she asked, trying to change the subject.

'We'll do what the guard said; reception.'

There was a big blue sign on the wall that pointed to a small door; the factory logo was stamped onto the glass pane. The Doctor turned the handle, half expecting it to be locked, but the door swung open. They entered a small, cramped office that was in danger of being overrun by the large pot plant that stood in the middle of the room. The bright green leaves rising out of the scarlet base poked out in all directions. Framed certificates and pictures of car parts were hung against the garish yellow walls and there were some shabby chairs arranged in lines. On the right hand side was a brown counter top. There was no one there. The Doctor walked over to the counter and thumped the little round bell a couple of times. 'John Smith, Health and Safety!' he announced, peering around to see if anyone was there.

Ivy sat down on one of the chairs. It reminded her of a hospital waiting room, only without the dread of getting a jab and the smell of disinfectant.

'There's definitely something going on.' The Doctor walked over to the water cooler and poured himself a drink. 'Look! They've got cone-shaped polystyrene cups! I love the cone-shaped ones. Much more exciting. Makes you feel like you're eating an ice cream.'

Ivy wondered how the Doctor could behave like a 12-year-old when Eva couldn't. 'So what do we do now? Wait until the non-existant receptionist comes and gives us our non-existant name tags?'

'I think...' The Doctor looked at the CCTV camera in the corner and waved at it before walking behind the counter and switching on the computer. 'Yeah, I think we'll take a look on here, see what we can find out. Besides, something's bound to happen eventually. With Jenny and Matt on the loose, how can things _not_ happen?'

-

'Found anything?' Jenny asked through gritted teeth. She was trying not to breathe in the stench of rotting rubbish.

'Not yet!' came a muffled reply from the dumpster.

'Well since there's nothing else in there let's go.'

'Hey cool! A yo-yo!'

Jenny rolled her eyes. As much as she liked Matt, he wasn't half immature some times. 'Leave it! Dad said we need to look for alien tech, not rubbish.'

After a bit of struggling, Matt extricated himself from the skip and hauled himself back down. He was covered in unidentified bits, but seemed to be loving it.

'Ok. Let's go round the back. There might be an unlocked door or something.'

Jenny crept along the wall, staying vigilant.

'You'd think they'd have some stuff going on, wouldn't you? There should be lorries and cars coming up here, but there's nothing; the only person we've seen is that thick security guard in the booth.'

'I'm not complaining,' Matt said. 'Come on.'

They entered through a door that opened out into a large factory space. Tall machines and cranes and half-made car parts lay on rough benches. There was a small office to the left with large windows so that the boss could sit there and look out at the workers, except that there was no boss. And there were no workers.

Jenny tried the handle of the office door, but it was locked. They continued through the space, hiding and keeping a watchful eye for anything that looked even slightly extra-terrestrial. Jenny picked up a metal rod from a bench top and held it like a baseball bat, ready if anyone suddenly ambushed them. They found another door, this time unlocked, that led into a wide corridor, with offices on either side. Jenny spotted a CCTV camera in the corner, and grabbed Matt before he walked in front of it. 'Hang on!' she said, pointing. She looked for its blind spots and moved stealthily around it, holding Matt's arm to make sure he didn't put a foot wrong. They continued up the corridor and turned left.

'There's something just up there,' Matt pointed ahead. 'See that?'

Jenny nodded. There was a blue tinge to the light at the end of the corridor, like a computer screen. There was also a faint humming coming from the open door. She raised a finger to her lips and nudged Matt forward. Carefully, they made their way towards the light.

Matt could feel his heart pounding in his chest from sheer exhilaration. Here they were, breaking and entering in search of aliens! He looked around for any more CCTV cameras, half expecting to see one following their every move. He inched along the wall beside Jenny, his palms sweaty and his face pale.

'Nearly there,' Jenny said, moving forward to take the lead. She peered round into the room, and caught sight of the camera pointed directly at them. She made to duck out of the way, but was too late. The alarm sounded throughout the entire building.

-

'Ah! Best be going!'

The Doctor and Ivy jumped into action as the alarm went off. They sped towards a door that said "Staff Only" and the Doctor opened it with the sonic screwdriver. They ran down the corridor and through a set of double doors. Ivy expected guards to come charging down the passage towards them.

'Turn left up ahead,' the Doctor told her. She headed round the corner. She could hear people running and shouting, getting closer and closer.

'Doctor!'

'This way!'

Ivy wondered whether the Doctor knew where he was going. Back in the reception room, he had used the computer to map a path to the room he thought the children were hidden, but what with the guards, the doors, the alarms and the stupidly slippery floor it would be a miracle if they actually got there. She felt the breath catch in her lungs and was developing a rather nasty stitch in her ribs. They seemed to be going round in circles, every which way, and all the corridors were the same. Blue floor, cream walls and a spiky pot plant next to the swinging double doors.

'What was that?' she said, as an echoing bang erupted from somewhere further down the corridor. She hoped that whoever they were dealing with wasn't the type to blow stuff up at the drop of a hat. More bangs, like something large, metal and heavy. Ivy could hear the Doctor behind her locking every door they went through with the sonic screwdriver. There were running footsteps getting nearer and nearer, voices calling through the corridors, the alarm was still wailing above their heads.

'Don't move!' a guard shouted, rounding the corner ahead of them. He was waving a long rifle.

'Whoa!' the Doctor said, stopping so quickly his rubber soles squealed on the linoleum.

'Don't move!' the guard repeated. He lifted his gun, aiming with professional precision.

'Now, hold on --'

More black-clad men formed a circle behind them, carrying rifles. Two of them were roughly pulling Jenny and Matt who had both been knocked out.

Ivy was terrified. Her mind felt blank as she stared down the gun barrels, dark and unforgiving. All she could think about was how they were going to get out of this. Ivy, a young girl who was quite good at hockey, and the Doctor, who wasn't exactly Arnold Schwartzenegger, against eight fully-trained, armed, no-nonsense hitmen.

'Look, I think there's been a bit of a mix up,' said the Doctor. He reached into his pocket - there were clicks as the men cocked their rifles - and pulled out the psychic paper. 'See, we were waiting at the reception for you lot to show up, so we sent Jenny and Matt --'

'Shut it, _Inspector Smith_,' the commanding officer spat. He nodded at one of his men, who stepped forward and held up a small black device, a bit like a radio. A high-pitched tone emanated from the tiny speakers. Ivy clamped her hands over her ears, feeling it penetrate her mind and shake her to the bone.

A thin, dark shadow separated itself from one of the guards who froze and fell to the floor. The shadow moved slowly towards the Doctor.

'Doctor!' Ivy tried to shout, but she couldn't be heard above the noise, 'Doctor!' The guards closed in around her, their helmets shielded them from the sound. One of them gave an order, and Ivy didn't need to hear it to know what it was before one of them raised their rifle and fired.


	5. Lost And Found

- Chapter Five -

**Lost and Found**

'-- results show she is not human.'

'Then what is she?'

'That is not clear.'

Distant voices faded into Jenny's mind. Their voices were strange, whispered, barely there, and Jenny found it difficult to concentrate on what they were saying. She promised herself just five more minutes of sleep and then she'd get up and go and beat up those aliens her Dad had been telling her about. What were they? The Hath? Slitheen? Daleks? Oh nevermind, just five more minutes...

'The other one will tell us everything we need to know.'

'How can we know? He might lie.'

'We will know.'

'He lied to us before, he may do so again and --'

The voices cut off abruptly as Jenny's eyes flickered open, and she felt the atmosphere in the room change. Before the room had felt warm, and she'd been able to sense animated hand gestures and shuffling feet, but now it was silent. There was nobody there.

She frowned. Not even a security guard?

The room was actually an office not unlike the one she and Matt had passed earlier, except that the desks and cupboards had all been replaced with computers and strange instruments that were definitely not from Earth.

'Well there's all the alien tech, Dad,' Jenny muttered bitterly.

She was lying on what seemed to be a dentist's chair. Just as she was about to try to escape, the door opened and a thin, sharp looking woman came in. She was carrying a clipboard and wore a white lab coat. Without saying anything, she walked over to a computer, tapped a couple of keys, scribbled something on the clipboard and then turned to look at Jenny. Then she said, 'Subject 24A/6B is now in a conscious state, and appears to be displaying an expression that is known on this planet as "anger".'

'Livid more like,' Jenny said, irritated that the woman was treating her more like a specimen than a person. 'Who are you, where am I and why am I here?'

The woman ignored her and continued to take notes on the clipboard.

Jenny rolled her eyes and stood up. 'Well this is a lot of fun. I'll just waltz out of here and pretend that I didn't nearly get shot at by a load of armed guards, shall I?' Still the woman ignored her. She flipped over a sheet of paper and ticked a couple of boxes.

Jenny was becoming increasingly perplexed. Why was this woman behaving in such a way? Surely any sane person would have reacted, and she was fairly sure that whoever it was that had kidnapped her probably wasn't going to let her go free of charge. However, the woman was making no attempts to stop her from walking out of the room. Jenny leant against the door and felt for the handle. It opened with a quiet click.

Finally the woman moved. 'Subject 24A/6B, I cannot let you leave this facility --'

'Oh give me a break.' Jenny walked right up to the woman and stared her in the eye. She noticed the woman's pupils were dilated and glassy. 'I don't know who or what did this to you, but my friends and I will sort it out. For now you can just take a nice nap. That chair's pretty comfy, anyway.'

'I cannot let you leave.'

'Yeah, sorry. That's not going to happen.' Jenny smiled apologetically. 'Sit back and relax. You'll feel much better afterwards - well, I will anyway.' She pulled back her fist.

-

Ivy woke up with a sore headache. She opened her eyes, but it didn't make much of a difference to the blackness surrounding her.

'Ivy!' Matt hissed through the darkness. 'Are you awake?' He poked her in the ribs.

'Ouch! I am now, thanks! Where are we?'

'I dunno. Some sort of cupboard judging by the keyhole. Door's locked, though, and I think there're mice.'

'Oh, brilliant.' Ivy sat up and tried to discern the shapes surrounding them. Mops were propped precariously against the wall, the floor was rough with dry mud and there was a strong smell of supposedly pine fresh detergent. Matt appeared to be sitting on a bucket.

'Have you got your Nintendo DS?' she asked him, knowing Matt always kept it somewhere on his person. One time he'd taken it to a wedding and had played Pokemon during the vows.

'Yeah, but I don't think the Doctor would approve of playing games--'

Ivy rolled her eyes. Of all the times Matt followed what the Doctor said. 'Nevermind the Doctor right now, just turn it on!'

Matt flicked the switch and blue light illuminated the cupboard. The Pokemon theme blared into life. The two of them looked around, tried to find something that would unlock the door. It was cramped and stuffy, and Matt kept knocking over the mops.

'Watch it!' Ivy said for the fifth time as wooden and plastic poles hit her on the back of the head. 'What's that up there?' There was a fuse box on the wall, and above it something glinted in the artificial light.

'A key?'

'No, they're not so stupid that they'd lock a key in here with us. It's a paperclip.'

'So a key then?' Matt said, grinning. He plucked the thin metal wire from Ivy's outstretched hand.

-

After dispatching the annoying woman with a textbook uppercut, Jenny stood up and looked around for something she could arm herself with. She didn't much fancy being knocked out again. She relieved the woman of her lab coat and pulled her up onto the dentist chair. Hopefully anyone looking would mistake the woman for Subject 24A/6B. She searched the pockets and found an ID, a pistol and one of the strange black devices. She turned it over in her hands, thinking. Find the Doctor, Ivy and Matt. That was probably top of the To Do List. She put the device back in her pocket and opened the door.

The room opened out into a corridor identical to all the others. The door she had exited was labelled "24A/6B", and the room next to it was apparently "24A/6A". She passed the ID through the card reader on the door and the box flashed to green.

Inside was another bank of computers and another dentist chair. Jenny rushed forward to see who the occupant was, sure it would be the Doctor, but it wasn't. Instead, a young, pale boy of twelve or thirteen, was lying there, unconscious by the looks of him. His eyes were flickering as though he was having a bad dream.

'Wakey wakey,' Jenny said, peering at him, but Subject 24A/6A still lay sleeping. Jenny contemplated carrying him out of the room. Anywhere she took him would be safer than here. She heaved him up and dragged him across the floor. There was a wheelchair leaning against the wall, and she hastily sat the boy in it and popped the brakes.

'Come on then, let's see if we can find the others.'

As she set about trying to find some clue as to where the Doctor was, Jenny saw more rooms labelled with patient numbers. Each corridor she walked down had even more doors, all labelled with little gold plaques like some weird kind of hotel. She peered in through the windows of some of them, and saw that while most of them were occupied by a slumbering child, some didn't have anyone in them at all. She kept an eye out for any cameras mounted on the walls, although it was difficult to avoid them with her new found friend. One of the wheels on the chair was squeaky and kept getting stuck whenever she turned a corner.

But there was still nobody around. Jenny kept expecting to see another white coat walking around the corner, or taking notes in one of the rooms, but each time she thought she saw someone, it turned out to be a shadow or a figment of her imagination. Each rubber-soled squeak on the lino was merely the wheelchair's casters complaining, each rustle of paper was just the wind tapping on the little high windows, set into the wall every couple of metres.

She remembered the voices she had heard before she had opened her eyes. They had disappeared so suddenly, and she was beginning to wonder if she had just dreamed up the conversation, whether those voices had actually existed at all.

There was a clatter at the end of the corridor. Jenny froze, the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. The wheelchair groaned at the sudden stop, and the boy slumped forwards in the seat. There was a loud voice and then someone quickly quietened him down.

'And you thought I needed a better light. I'm telling you I am the world's best at lock picking.'

'Shh! They might be able to hear us!'

Jenny grinned, relieved at the sound of familiar voices, and wheeled the chair around the corner, coming face to face with Ivy and Matt once more.


	6. Successful Integration

-Chapter Six-

**Successful Integration**

'So what do we do now?'

The three of them were sat inside the broom cupboard again, the door slightly ajar to let the light in. Jenny had checked over the patient in the wheelchair and filled them all in about what she had seen.

'First things first, we need to find the Doctor,' she said.

'But they've taken him,' Ivy said. 'They took the Doctor when we were stopped by those guards. Didn't anyone else see it?'

Matt and Jenny both shook their heads.

'There was this person inside one of the guards. Well, not a person; I don't know what it was, like a shadow or something. And just after they got us with that noise thing, it came out of the guard and went for the Doctor. I mean, I think that's what I saw. It might have been a figment of my imagination, I suppose.'

'What d'you mean _went for_ the Doctor?'

'I don't know, I just saw it moving towards him.'

Jenny and Matt exchanged worried looks. They had to find the Doctor. If what Ivy said was true and he was in the hands of these aliens, whatever they were, it could mean he was in serious trouble.

'They're probably doing tests on him,' Jenny said. 'Like they were with me. And we've got to get the children out as well. I don't know what they're doing with them but it can't be a good thing.'

The three of them decided to get the unconscious boy out of the factory first. There were no guards around, but they were more wary than ever about cameras and sensors.

'That device, is it like the one Eva had?' Matt asked when Jenny pulled it out of her pocket. She threw it to him and held up the pistol instead. 'Different shape. But keep it. I prefer this anyway.'

Ivy gave her a stern look. 'The Doctor says--'

'I'm not going to use it! Well I might, but not to kill anyone. Well, not actual people, anyway.'

Matt turned the device over in his hands. This one was a small cube that had strange symbols on each side. There was something strange about it, although he couldn't tell what it was; but the more he stared at it the stranger it became. It wasn't just black, it sucked in light. And it seemed to suck up sound too. Matt put his ear against it, and even the noise of Ivy and Jenny's whispered bickering faded away.

_*Fzsh* WE... *blip* IF YOU THINK... BE EASY... *shfzh* VERY WRONG! *Fzsh* ... *click*_

Matt pulled his ear away quickly and stared at the device. 'W- what? Ivy, Jenny, did you hear that?'

'Hear what?' asked Jenny, looking around for any sign of movement in the shadows.

'It was a strange sort of buzzing noise. Like static. And someone was trying to say something. They sounded really angry about something... It was coming from this.' Jenny took the black box and held it against her ear.

'Do you hear it?' Matt asked, hopefully. 'Or is it just me going mad?'

'I... can't hear anything.'

Jenny handed the device to Ivy who gave the same response. 'It's just you, Matt.'

Matt looked despondent as he shoved the box back into his pocket. 'Maybe it was a transmission. Like one of those signals the Doctor was talking about.'

'Speaking of the Doctor, we need to find him, or find out what's happening in this place... Come on, Matt. If that thing makes another sound, tell us.'

Jenny swiped the ID card through a card reader and they filed out of the open door into the factory car park.

'Feels good to get out of that place.' Matt stretched his arms above his head as if he had just woken up. 'It gets kind of claustrophobic after a while.'

'I know what you mean,' Jenny said. 'I don't fancy going past that guard again without the psychic paper. Let's go through the fence and get back to the orphanage.'

They wheeled the chair over to the wire fence and Matt crawled through the hole, since none of the others were small enough. He ran into the house and rooted through the kitchen drawers to find some wire cutters, then went back outside. He managed to expand the hole so they could get the wheelchair through with minimal difficulty and then went through the back door of the house.

'Kenny?'

Jenny turned when she heard Eva's voice. The girl ran towards her friend. 'Kenny! What happened to him?'

'Experiments. Aliens love that kind of thing. He'll wake up in a bit like I did.'

'Aliens again,' Eva rolled her eyes at Jenny, who folded her arms.

'Yeah, aliens. Hard to believe isn't it? That in all that universe there might be something more out there than a bunch of apes on one tiny planet.'

Ivy barely suppressed a grin at the look of resentment on Eva's face.

'Anyway,' Jenny opened the back door again. 'We've got to go. Take care of Kenny, don't lose the TARDIS, stop making excuses and start believing everything you've seen. We've got more important things to do.'

Jenny stomped off outside again.

'You know, sometimes I get the feeling she really likes this whole saving the world thing,' Matt said.

'I think I know the way from out here,' Ivy said. She pointed at individual parts of the building. 'Over there's the work space, that's the manager's office and _that_... The Doctor was really quick; he's probably got a photographic memory, but I'm pretty sure _that_ is the place he thought the signals were coming from. He said it'd have proper doors.' Jenny used the ID card again to get back inside the factory, and Ivy led the way down more corridors until they came to some thick metal doors. A sign above them read "Lecture Theatre".

'Ok, got it. Matt, you stay out here and keep guard. If anything happens either shout for us or see if you can use that device.'

Ivy opened the door and peered round slowly. 'It's clear,' she said.

The two of them entered into a large room, filled with bleeping alien technology and plasma screens. There were chairs on the outside and each of those had more black boxes on them, arranged carefully around the central point: a tall black spire that stretched all the way to the ceiling. It seemed to suck in everything around it like a black hole.

'Over here,' Jenny pointed at the biggest monitor. They moved over to it, and Jenny swiped her ID card through a slot again. The computer whirred into life.

_"Welcome, Dr Patience Zeiger. Susurrus Research Centre module 25v8.0.6. Sol 3 database."_

Photographs flickered on the screen showing the files of all the patients in the factory. Most of them were children Ivy recognised from the orphanage.

'It's a bit weird. You'd expect someone would be around in here.' Jenny looked at all the empty seats, her voice echoed in the hall. 'But there's nothing. Not even any of those so-called "Doctors".'

'Not even _the _Doctor,' Ivy muttered. 'Hey, take a look at this. Some of these records go back to 2005.' Jenny looked over her shoulder.

'What? So you mean this isn't even that recent?' Jenny read the screen over Ivy's shoulder.

'Or they've just moved here from another location. I don't recognise these people.'

'So what're all these experiments for?'

'I'm not sure... Hang on a second. I wish we had the sonic screwdriver.' Ivy manipulated the controls as best she could and brought up a random file. 'Sarah Hawking. 14 years old. Human. This record was made in 2007. April 24th 2007 they ran a successful integration test, whatever that means.'

'Successful integration. Why don't I like the sound of that?'

'Patrick Sawyer, 11 years old, human, admitted December 2008. Successful integration again. And again with this one.'

'Sounds like they're all trying to achieve "successful integration".'

Ivy blanched as she pulled up another file. 'This one is for Mr Devin McCauley, 43, human. He was that security guard that got the Doctor. Successful integration. Dr Patience Zeiger, 32, human. Successful Integration.'

'So they can do it to adults as well.'

'Hang on a second, just before I blacked out I saw something come out of him. It looked as if it was a part of him, like a soul. Or a shadow.'

They stood in silence for a moment, as it dawned on them what Successful Integration might have been.

'Is the Doctor's file there?' Jenny ventured, clearly anxious.

Ivy tapped a couple of keys on the keyboard. 'No... I don't see him anywhere.'

'But they must have a file on him. They wanted him alive, didn't they?'

'Hang on, I'll try John Smith.'

They waited with baited breath as the computer searched the database. Finally, an ID flashed up on the screen.

'John Smith. 904, Time Lord. Successful Integration... They've taken control of the Doctor.'

They felt movement behind them that had been muffled by the spire and wheeled round to see the Doctor standing next to it. His pupils were dilated even in the bright yellow light of the lecture theatre.

'Oh,' said Ivy. 'This is so not good.'


End file.
